HE took ART from HEART

If you asked Brian Cuff, production lab coordinator, senior sports producer, and current adjunct lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies (DCS) at Northern Caribbean University’s (NCU) main campus, he would say, “I had no intentions to do media.”

After graduating from St Jago High School in 2002, Cuff took a year off before beginning his journey at The University of the West Indies (UWI).

He had previously intended to study paediatric neurology and wanted to enter the medical field to fulfil his wish to take care of his mother, who had been diagnosed with a heart condition.

However, his career path was diverted to media and communications after he was encouraged by a relative to broaden his vision.

“I didn’t set out to be in media; I set out to be a paediatric neurologist after watching Ben Carson’s Think Big. Well, reading it first and then watching a documentary on him,” Cuff shared during a recent interview.

Noting that his mother had fallen ill and that he had read Carson’s book around the time that she required surgery, Cuff said he had a revelation that, if he were a surgeon, he could help.

“At the time, I didn’t even think about neurology indepth; I just wanted to do that because of Ben Carson, but I wanted to be able to operate and fix people and make them better. When Richie [Cuffe’s cousin] suggested [media and communications] to me, I realised that [paediatric neurology] wasn’t the way I would help her. I knew I had to find another way, but [though] I didn’t see media as it, I did it ‘just because’,” Cuff said.

Childhood and Family Expectations

Growing up, Cuff was always referred to as ‘Dr Brian’ by family members and friends, especially his mother, who knew he wanted to take up such a career path to someday help her. This became a motivation to pursue the sciences in high school, even if it meant working twice as hard to succeed in those classes.

“Mommy and all my family knew I wanted to be a doctor to help my mom. She used to tell everyone I was going to be a doctor to help her, so that was a driving force to guide me to medicine. Despite realising it wasn’t for me, I still forced, tried, and begged to do the sciences because mommy and others wanted me to be a doctor because I had said it since I was young. During those times too, kids were encouraged to be either doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc,” he said.

He added that, during his younger years, people also thought he would someday become a lawyer as he had an ability to remain engaging in lengthy discussions. But it was Richie who saw in him his media skills.

“My cousin Richie was the one who said ‘try media’. I had no intentions to do it. When I was younger, people used to say I talked a lot, so I would be a lawyer, but the media never came into the limelight at all. I really wanted to do medicine, and I failed the science subjects, interestingly, so it’s like God had His hand on my life directing me to where I would eventually be in media, and I just realised it fits; it comes naturally,” he said.

“Yes, I had to work hard, but English is one of my passions; sports is also one of my passions; and by nature, I am a producer. It was a lot of work, but it came easy. The minute I stepped in [to CARIMAC], the very entrance exam was a three-hour paper, and we had to be doing it in one hour, so I think just being able to get through that exam and be chosen among the 30 people who were selected per year into CARIMAC for the entire Caribbean was just destiny,” Cuff explained.

While Cuff did not become a doctor or lawyer as his family expected of him, by 2008, he was a proud graduate of The UWI with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Communications.

“When my cousin said CARIMAC, I just went, did the exam, got through, and the rest was history,” he said.

The Journey

Since exiting the walls of The UWI, Cuff has made significant strides in his career path, reaching impressive milestones that family members, especially his mom, can’t help but be proud of. Among those milestones was covering then United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Jamaica in 2015.

“I am proud of everything I do in media. I think some of my standout moments so far are covering Barack Obama’s presidential tour when he came here. I was the senior news reporter at Love 101 FM, so I was the person who did most of the tour. I was the person from Love FM again covering the Tivoli incursion, which was a crowning moment for me to be able to report on that historic moment, which really changed a lot of things in Jamaica in my view,” he said.

“I moved over to the sporting field, being the lead producer for Boys and Girls’ Champs, Gibson McCook relays, World Cup coverage, Olympics coverage, World Championships coverage for TVJ, RSPL – most of the major senior sporting properties that they would have had. I played a role in leading that charge, so all of those would have been crowning moments. To work with some of the people I grew up listening to, like Fae Ellington, Neville Bell, and Simone Clarke – just so many amazing people, I think – is a crowning moment,’’ Cuff shared.

Fortunately for him, he always had the support of his mother, who was still proud of him regardless of the career path he decided to take. When asked how she handled the news of his pursuing a degree in media and communications, Cuff shared that he believed the expectation that he would have someday become a doctor was outweighed by his many accomplishments in his media career.

“Eventually, when she started hearing me on the radio, she was so proud of me that her joy of me being on radio then TV, I guess, removed the thoughts of me not being a doctor,” he said.

PROUD MOM

Beverly Cuff, who is now 64 years old, is still very proud of her son and uses every opportunity she gets to tell people about him.

“She’s over the moon. She talks about me a lot to others and is excited whenever I get to come on radio or television or she hears my name or sees me working with my esteemed colleagues, especially those she has heard or seen over the years. Sweet har, man,” Cuff said.

While accomplishing so much in his less than 40 years of life, Cuff was not remiss in admitting that learning of his mother’s illness during his high school years had a major toll on his mental health.

“I’ve battled depression and suicidal thoughts. I’ve done things to try and ease the pain of her pain. I nearly failed all my CXCs because I was so focused on just wishing she was well; school was on the back burner. I remember zoning out in classes and exams when people were walking past with their moms or parents and just wishing mine was okay. I was expected to get eight ones, and I got one one and five threes – even that was a story; they used to mock me and call me ‘forest’ and if it wasn’t my mom being proud of me getting six subjects, maybe I would have bummed out,” he said.

While recent research indicates that patients who undergo transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) can live normal lives after surgery, following his mother’s TAVR procedure in 2002, Cuff admitted that he struggled with the fear of the unknown throughout his school years.

“My mom did open heart surgery and replaced a valve; now her heart ticks. [I] don’t hear it beating, and I have been told that time can run out at any moment. I struggled with that all through high school and university and felt discouraged and possibly depressed,” Cuff said.

Jamaica’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Helpline, launched in 2019, was designed to help individuals who have had experiences similar to Cuff. So far, it has helped more than 4,700 Jamaicans, while the U-Matter Chatline, a partnership between the Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to cater to young people aged 16–24, has conducted more than 2,000 counselling sessions handling a variety of issues like suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, stress, and mood disorders.

According to the Southern Regional Health Authority’s psychiatrist, Dr Melissa Tennant-James, Cuff’s mental health struggle is not uncommon; however, she says females are more likely to get assistance than males.

“Stories of children facing mental health issues are not uncommon in our children, but we tend to see greater prevalence in girls and women. The circumstances seen in our clinic in Manchester include parental loss (especially the death of the main caregiver), abuse, bullying, and moving between multiple relatives for living accommodations. The majority of the boys who attend clinics in the parish do so later than girls, and most of them lack protective factors such as another parent or other support, so their outcome is not as good. I find that our girls will be more supported,” she said.

So What Now?

Today, Cuff continues to break barriers, inspire change, and play a big part in shaping the minds of the hundreds of future media practitioners who pass through the DCS at NCU, where he facilitates several courses like television and radio broadcasting, television production, and principles of photography.

Besides his contribution as a lecturer at NCU, Cuff serves in several other capacities, which include his role as DCS production lab and television sector coordinator. He has ably served two regimes as an adviser to the director of publications for the United Student Movement (USM) at NCU, an adviser to the Literary and Debating Society (LADs) at NCU, a photographer, and a content creator, to name a few.

Along this journey, Cuff met his wife, Basillia Barnaby-Cuff, a broadcaster, author, and social media influencer, to whom he has been married for the past 10 years. This union has blessed him with two beautiful girls, Bree’Ah-Marie and Bella-Renée Cuff.

He may not have been able to heal the hearts of those who were sick, including his mom, but Brian Cuff continues to win the hearts of his students and the many individuals who look to him as a source of inspiration.